sexismhttp://www.barnard.edu/taxonomy/term/431/all
enWeb Exclusive: President Spar Shares her Thoughts on How Young Women are Embracing Feminismhttp://www.barnard.edu/news/web-exclusive-president-spar
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-142" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">president</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics/bcrw" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">BCRW</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-3" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">culture</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-21" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">equality</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-18" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">gender</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-17" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-59" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">media</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-88" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><a href="http://bcrw.barnard.edu/podcast-sections/dare-to-use-the-f-word/"><img alt="" class="media-image" height="243" style="float:right;margin:0 0 1em 1em;" width="300" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/wysiwyg_medium/public/img_2731.jpg?itok=gdKlAerP" />Dare to Use the F-Word</a> is a new monthly podcast series created by and for young feminists. Street harassment, food activism, body image and slut-shaming are among the diverse issues discussed in the series, which is produced by Barnard College and the Barnard Center for Research on Women and aims to spotlight contemporary issues and activists. The podcast is available for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dare-to-use-the-f-word/id641179790">download on iTunes</a>, where you can also subscribe to the series.</p>
<p>In a recent episode, Barnard President Debora Spar, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/wonder-women-power-quest-perfection/dp/0374298750">Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection</a>, talks with feminist media activist <a href="http://www.jamiawilson.com/">Jamia Wilson</a> about how the drive for perfection affects young women today. Following the interview, President Spar shared her thoughts on the direction of feminism for the next generation.</p>
<p>Read this exclusive piece below:</p>
<p>Since the release of <a href="http://www.wonderwomenthebook.com">Wonder Women</a> several months ago, one of the questions that I’ve consistently been asked is “how is feminism different today? What do you hear on campus? Do young women want to be feminists, or not?” It’s a complicated question, without an easy answer. Because young women, of course, don’t speak with a single voice or share a common attitude. Some are quick to embrace the term feminist. Others despise it. And many – sadly, for the mothers and grandmothers who opened doors for them – no longer really have a sense of what the word implies.</p>
<p>My own view – shaped, I’m sure, by the particular environment of Barnard College, a staunch and early defender of feminism in all its many guises – is that most young women today are feminist in nature if not in name. What I mean is that they implicitly assume that the goals that feminism fought for are theirs to claim. They assume, for instance, that they will work, for pay, for at least long stretches of their lives. They assume that all jobs – be they in finance or law or public office or industry – are open to them, and that they will receive roughly the same salaries as their male co-workers. They assume that their bodies are theirs to enjoy, and treasure, and share as they wish. They presume that birth control is widely available; that relationships are theirs to make, break, and determine; and that the world is every bit as open to them as it for their brothers. In other words, they think, without even thinking about it, that they have equal rights with men. Which was, after all, the central goal of feminism.</p>
<p>What they don’t do, necessarily, is credit the feminist movement for this state of affairs, or eagerly claim the label of feminist for themselves. This is perhaps unfortunate but also understandable. Because how many young people generally race to thank their ancestors for bequeathing the world they did? How many adolescents want to attach themselves to the same political causes as their parents or grandparents – especially when they feel as if those causes have already been fought for and won? Or as one older woman once expressed it to me: how many hard-core feminists of the 1960s defined themselves as suffragettes?</p>
<p>To be sure, there are many young women today who proudly wear the label of feminism, and are expanding both advocacy and theory in fascinating ways: leading the global fight against sex trafficking, for example, speaking out against domestic violence, and pushing at the very definitions of sex and gender and identity. But there are others, too, the reluctant feminists, who carry the mantle even if not the name.</p>
<p>Continue the conversation by spreading the word about the amazing feminists we cover on our show. Click to tweet: <a href="http://ctt.ec/OdIbo"><em>Listen to Barnard College's Dare to Use the F-Word podcast series to hear how young women are reshaping feminism. http://bit.ly/IDIgGg</em></a></p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-share field-type-addthis field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Web Exclusive: President Spar Shares her Thoughts on How Young Women are Embracing Feminism - Barnard College" addthis:url="http://www.barnard.edu/news/web-exclusive-president-spar"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_tumblr"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a>
</div></div></div></div>Wed, 11 Dec 2013 21:59:30 +0000acale30816 at http://www.barnard.eduBody Positive Week: Movie Screening of "Killing us Softly 4"http://www.barnard.edu/events/body-positive-week-movie-screening-killing-us-softly-4
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-38" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">activism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-89" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">film</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-138" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">visual arts</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-21" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">equality</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-18" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">gender</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-17" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-9" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">health</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-59" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">media</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-97" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">psychology</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-55" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">behavior</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-137" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sex</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-88" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-20" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexuality</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Screen this documentary about advertising’s image of women featuring Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. Pizza will be served!</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventdatedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Thursday, February 28, 2013</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventlocation field-type-text field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Brooks Hall TV Lounge</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomyevents field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/event-type-8" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">film</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventtimedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">6:30pm</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>This film takes a critical look at American advertising and discovers that the more things have changed, the more they've stayed the same. Breaking down more than 160 print and television ads, Kilbourne uncovers a steady stream of sexist and misogynistic images and messages, laying bare a world of frighteningly thin women in positions of passivity, and a restrictive code of femininity that works to undermine girls and women in the real world. Join us afterwards for a discussion about how advertising impacts sexism, eating disorders, gender violence, and contemporary politics.</p>
<p>Sponsored by: Furman Counseling Center </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-02-28T18:30:00-05:00">Feb 28 2013 - 6:30pm</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-share field-type-addthis field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Body Positive Week: Movie Screening of &amp;quot;Killing us Softly 4&amp;quot; - Barnard College" addthis:url="http://www.barnard.edu/events/body-positive-week-movie-screening-killing-us-softly-4"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_tumblr"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a>
</div></div></div></div>Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:39:45 +0000gscottwa23546 at http://www.barnard.eduBody Positive Week: An Evening with Tiffany Bankshttp://www.barnard.edu/events/body-positive-week-evening-tiffany-banks
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-79" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">diversity</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-21" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">equality</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-18" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">gender</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-17" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-97" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">psychology</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-88" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-157" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-159" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">free events</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/617" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">health</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-171" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women of color</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Model, speaker and writer returns to Barnard!</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventdatedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Monday, February 25, 2013</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventlocation field-type-text field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Diana Center Oval</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomyevents field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/event-type-22" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">workshop</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/event-type-16" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">performance</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/event-type-3" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lecture</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventtimedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">6:30pm</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Meet plus-size model Tiffany Banks, star of TLC's reality show "Big Sexy," and talk about sex, body image, and the modeling industry. FREE refreshments will be served.</p>
<p>Sponsored by: Furman Counseling Center and Well-Women </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-02-25T06:30:00-05:00">Feb 25 2013 - 6:30am</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-share field-type-addthis field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Body Positive Week: An Evening with Tiffany Banks - Barnard College" addthis:url="http://www.barnard.edu/events/body-positive-week-evening-tiffany-banks"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_tumblr"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a>
</div></div></div></div>Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:25:08 +0000gscottwa23401 at http://www.barnard.eduPresident's Page: Sexual Politicshttp://www.barnard.edu/headlines/presidents-page-sexual-politics
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-179" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">alumnae</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-30" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Barnard College</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-142" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">president</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-29" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">community</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-88" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-associatedperson field-type-user-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/profiles/debora-spar">Debora Spar</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><h4><img alt="Debora Spar, photo by Steve DeCanio" class="image-inline_small" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/inline_small/public/images/inline/deboraspar_00103_bw_lane_4.jpg" style="float:left;margin:0 1em 1em 0;" title="Debora Spar, photo by Steve DeCanio" />On a particularly dreary day at the end of February, I received an unexpected phone call. Back and forth with doctors all morning, I was trying to get word about my younger son, who had phoned from college to report that he was ill and on his way to the hospital. When the phone rang, I leaped, positive that it was the emergency room calling with the final diagnosis. Instead, it was my office, informing me that President Obama wanted to give the commencement address at Barnard. What does one say? “Oh wow,” I mumbled. “Sure. I have to get off the phone now.”</h4>
<p>Over the next few days, matters evolved in a blur. My husband and I raced to Vermont to check on our son who, thankfully, was soon okay. I ran through the list of people who had to be contacted confidentially. And then worked with my staff to craft a careful strategy for releasing the good news. In an e-mail sent early on a Saturday morning, we solemnly informed our students that the president had chosen Barnard and would soon be addressing the College’s graduating seniors. The news hit slowly, and then exploded in the blogosphere. “PRESIDENT OBAMA IS GIVING THE BARNARD COMMENCEMENT SPEECH,” one student swiftly reported on Facebook. “No words. Just wow,” commented another. By noon, though, the tone had taken a decidedly different, distinctly horrible turn.</p>
<p>Out of the woodwork, unidentified grumblers began attacking the College and its students. Most of the attacks were general in nature and could reasonably be explained away as jealousy. “POTUS is smart and he made an intelligent move,” groused one. “Better to speak with people without brains than…talk with students who are intellectually superior.” But some were distinctly and disgustingly misogynistic, demeaning the career ambitions and purported sexual practices of Barnard students. “Barnard is full of academically inferior students that…are stereotypically easy to get in bed,” asserted one anonymous post. “Just tell them to have babies and take good care of your family,” stated another. A handful were so obscene that I won’t repeat them here. Other media, however, had no such reservations; within days the campus was embroiled in a nasty and high-profile fight about women and sexuality; women and success; and the complicated boundaries between profanity and free speech.</p>
<p>That same week, Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke, a law student who testified before Congress in favor of expanded insurance coverage of contraception, a slut and a prostitute. In response, President Obama telephoned Fluke personally to express his disappointment and support. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, then vying with Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, offered carefully worded comments, trying to distance themselves from Limbaugh’s language without, necessarily, disagreeing with his views.</p>
<p>Certainly, much of what has driven the sexual politics of 2012 is this year’s electoral politicking—a divisive ideological scramble in which both parties are explicitly fighting for the “women’s vote.” More surprising and of greater long-term importance, is that these fights have also unearthed a deep-seated ambivalence about sex in America, particularly about the sexuality of young unmarried women. Because what was revealed by our announcement, by Limbaugh’s rantings, and by the outbursts surrounding them both, was that women in 2012—roughly 50 years after the dawning of the sexual and feminist revolutions—are still being crucified on the cross of the madonna-whore, damned if they do and if they don’t. To some older feminists, the public eruption of these tensions stands as proof that the battle for women’s rights has not yet been won. To many students, though, it came simply as a shock. “It’s hurtful,” reported one. “Since when should I have to defend myself just for going to the school I go to?” “Why,” asked another more plaintively, “are they being so mean?”</p>
<p>Struggling to answer these questions, I wrote an open letter to our students in late March. Noting, thankfully, that the worst of the attacks had subsided by this point, I mentioned how well-reasoned counterattacks led by students on both sides of Broadway had helped bring the situation under control. But still, I wrote, the misogyny we had experienced was shocking. “Lurking still below the surface of women’s advancement is a sexism that refuses to die, a sexism that rears its frightful head in anonymous online commentary and Congressional testimony on contraception; on hate radio and in electoral contests that still focus on female candidates’ looks rather than their achievements.” I continued, “Fighting back against [sexism] is not a crusade owned solely by women’s colleges. It is a fight we all share, and a goal we cannot afford to neglect.”</p>
<p>Over the past few months, I have been delighted to see our students rising to this fight and embracing its far-flung goals. I have been heartened by their reenergized interest in reproductive rights and by their willingness—across the political spectrum—to engage in political debate and activity. There is a new activism around feminist issues, a new willingness by this generation of students to grapple with problems, from misogyny to work-life balance, that their mothers might once have believed were long ago laid to rest.</p>
<p>Barnard Commencement of 2012 will be remembered, as it should be, as a glorious day, marked by great accomplishment and pride. But I will also remember the disturbing bumps along the way, and the sobering effect that came from seeing how potent sexism remains today, and how cruel.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-share field-type-addthis field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="President&amp;#039;s Page: Sexual Politics - Barnard College" addthis:url="http://www.barnard.edu/headlines/presidents-page-sexual-politics"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_tumblr"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a>
</div></div></div></div>Thu, 19 Jul 2012 18:06:08 +0000dstaab12846 at http://www.barnard.eduEmbracing the F Wordhttp://www.barnard.edu/headlines/embracing-f-word
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-38" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">activism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-179" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">alumnae</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-88" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><h2>Five Barnard feminists share their stories from the ever-evolving movement</h2>
<h3>“Feminism and Feminists Today: A Conversation Across the Decades,” brought together alumnae representing nearly 45 years of feminism at this reunion panel. From “I Am Woman” in the ’70s, to the ’80s Sex Wars, to the ’90s backlash and riot grrrls, to “girl power” in the aughts and modern-day SlutWalks, how we define and defend feminism has evolved as have feminists themselves. The panelists shared their thoughts on what feminism meant to them as students, where it stands today, and how to protect its future.</h3>
<p>Courtney Martin ’02, a founder and editor emerita of feministing.com and author of several books, including <em>Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists </em>and <em>Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters,</em> moderated. After introducing the panelists, she asked each woman to elaborate on how her relationship to feminism came alive or changed at Barnard.</p>
<p><img alt="—Illustration by Melinda Beck" class="image-inline_large" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/inline_large/public/images/inline/feminsim.jpg" style="float:left;margin:0 1em 1em 0;" title="—Illustration by Melinda Beck" />New Jersey Democratic Assemblywoman Mila Oden Jasey ’72 arrived in on campus in 1968 with the feminist message already instilled by her mother. She recalled that everything, even academics, took a back seat to another issue. “Feminism is not something I was focused on. We were more focused on the war in Vietnam,” Jasey said. The most feminist event she remembers was the founding in her junior year of the Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW), created with a mission of supporting feminism and social justice.</p>
<p>“You couldn’t avoid being a feminist at Barnard when I was here,” said Katherine Franke ’81, the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia and director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. She remembered a late ’70s campus buzzing about women’s rights, gay rights, sexuality, and feminism. The popular feminist debate was anti-porn vs. pro-sex; the famous <em>Hustler</em> magazine cover image of a woman being put through a meat grinder was everywhere. “It was an exciting [time]. Sexuality was so central to how we understood feminism, how we understood ourselves as women.”</p>
<p>Kathryn Drabinski ’97, a gender and women’s studies lecturer at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, arrived here from Boise, Idaho, looking for a radical time. “Women at Barnard were having fierce arguments and causing trouble,” she said. Despite the constraints of nascent political correctness, activism was hip. Drabinski worked in BCRW with many of her friends, volunteered weekends at an abortion clinic, and was involved in a group called LABIA (Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action). “When I was in it I don’t remember thinking, ‘I’m a feminist.’ I was just a college student,” she said.</p>
<p>Shilpa Guha ’12 said the campus was not the wild political scene she expected. A T-shirt created by the BCRW convinced her to choose Barnard. The message: Dare to Use the F-Word. “It was one of these signs that I got on my campus tour,” recalled Guha. “I was looking for a feminist space.” She eventually found it as a research assistant for BCRW, and in events like Take Back the Night.</p>
<p>In many ways, Guha represents a new breed discussed by the panel: the professional feminist. She already has an impressive CV. While attending Barnard, she was a coordinator for AfterHours Tutoring, a community impact youth group, and interned at the Ms. Foundation, the United Nations in Geneva, and the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. Guha interviewed Anita Hill on campus and has met Oprah Winfrey. With degrees in political science and human rights, she is headed to Washington, D.C. to intern for the American Bar Association.</p>
<p>Franke and Drabinski find that students today are more professionally driven. “Kids today consider college to be a direct path to what you want to be,” says Franke. “My experience was anything but.” After college she was in a band, taught karate, and wrote a novel before law school. Drabinski worked at a video store, nannied, and did temp work. Jasey, who wanted to be a teacher, instead went to nursing school, despite protests from friends and family who thought medical school more appropriate. Even Martin waitressed at the Deluxe Diner near the campus.</p>
<p>Such a rigid focus can make women less likely to take the risks associated with activism. The Facebook generation knows anything that lives on the Internet can come back to haunt them. Social media has generally been a boon for getting people involved, with online petitions, lively discussions in comment threads, and the ability to spread information quickly. Last year’s SlutWalks, which started in Toronto as a protest against a male official telling women they should stop dressing like sluts if they don’t want to be victimized, gained traction on the Web. Women in cities throughout the United States marched in “slutty” clothing. A picture or video at such a rally can spread just as quickly and easily.</p>
<p>“I totally understand the fear of being on Facebook or YouTube,” said Jasey. While she doesn’t think rallies necessarily change things, they do keep young women politically minded. “That feeling of being in a demonstration and feeling that energy around you is very motivating. I’m worried that people don’t realize what we fought so hard to get can so easily be taken away.”</p>
<p>Perhaps young women don’t understand the urgency because they were born with the rights hard-won by their mothers and grandmothers. Or they are simply trying to live up to the standard set by a generation that insisted, “you can do it all,” without explaining how. Maybe the economy is to blame, or Martin suggested, there’s a missing externalized anger that seemed to drive previous generations.</p>
<p>Politics is the realm where women can really affect change, asserted Jasey. Yes, the system is broken, but it’s important for more women to get involved. “Experience gives you more patience and perhaps more courage to anger people and to do things that are not popular. Women more than men, in my experience in the legislature, are willing to take those risks,” she explained.</p>
<p>Does it matter that women are still unwilling to label themselves feminists? Drabinski didn’t think so. At the beginning of her introductory gender and women’s studies courses, she always asks those students who consider themselves feminists to raise their hands. Maybe three out of 70 do. She might double the number of self-identifying feminists by the time the class ends, but it’s still less than 10 percent. The label means less than getting them to think like feminists, she said.</p>
<p>Martin took care to mention that there are a great may young feminists who are speaking out on blogs and participating in conversations about reproductive and other rights. Not to mention the great many women who may not be calling themselves feminists but are still advancing the cause.</p>
<p><em>—by Melissa Phipps</em></p>
<p><em>—Illustration by Melinda Beck</em></p>
<p> </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-share field-type-addthis field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Embracing the F Word - Barnard College" addthis:url="http://www.barnard.edu/headlines/embracing-f-word"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_tumblr"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a>
</div></div></div></div>Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:48:49 +0000dstaab12838 at http://www.barnard.eduPresident's Page: Where Women Rulehttp://www.barnard.edu/magazine/2011/fall/presidents-page
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-88" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-associatedperson field-type-user-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/profiles/debora-spar">Debora Spar</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><h2><img alt="Debora L. Spar" class="image-inline_small" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/inline_small/public/images/inline/deboraspar_00103_bw_lane_2.jpg" style="float:left;margin:0 1em 1em 0;" title="Debora L. Spar, photo by Steve DeCanio" />Over the past three years, I have come to realize that I hear the same two questions a lot: <em>What is the relationship between Barnard and Columbia?</em> And, <em>Why does anyone still need a women’s college?</em></h2>
<p>I have gotten quite good at answering the first query (separate institution; wonderful partnership), but the latter remains a tougher conversation. As a recent article by Tamar Lewin ’71 in <em>The New York Times</em> describes, single-sex education is under attack across the country, with critics suggesting that it offers no real benefits over standard coeducation. According to a report entitled “The Pseudoscience of Single-Sex Schooling,” for example, “sex-segregated education is deeply misguided and often justified by weak, cherry-picked or misconstrued scientific claims rather than by valid scientific evidence.” Similar criticisms are lobbed more informally across Web sites and popular blogs, stressing that, with women now accounting for more than 50 percent of the student population in colleges, universities, and graduate schools, the rationale for women’s colleges has completely disappeared. Or as one opponent recently argued online, single-sex schools are breeding grounds for “habits and mindsets that will actually render graduates MORE of a target and LESS capable of coping in the mainstream world.”</p>
<p>Repeatedly, and consistently, I disagree. Yes, women out-perform men in high school and outnumber them in college. Yes, women are welcome in athletic programs and dining clubs and across the Ivy League. Yet the proverbially tilted playing field for women has still not fully righted itself and young women—amazingly, astonishingly, perhaps—often experience college very differently from their male friends and counterparts. Yale was forced to confront these differences very publicly last year when the Department of Education investigated the university for a possible breach of Title IX (failure to eliminate a hostile sexual environment on campus). Duke has dealt with accusations of sexual harassment and a distinctly “macho” culture. And Princeton, to its great credit, recently released a candid and hard-hitting analysis of women’s leadership, or lack thereof, on its campus.</p>
<p>Princeton began admitting women in 1969, following several years of acrimonious debate among its then-all-male students and alumni. “I simply cannot conceive,” one graduate grumbled at the time, “anything like our warm friendships and manly dedication in an atmosphere thoroughly polluted by females.” Yet in the early years of coeducation, the university’s recent report notes, female students fared quite well. Women held a total of 18 major campus positions during the course of the 1980s and 22 in the 1990s; in 1975, both the valedictorian and salutatorian at Commencement were female. Over time, however, women have quietly, stunningly, begun to slip from leadership positions across campus. Only 12 women held prominent campus positions during the 2000s and only six won the Pyne Prize, the University’s highest award for general distinction. Men, by contrast, held 58 leadership positions during the 2000s and won 12 Pyne Prizes. As the report thus notes, “We had assumed … that after the pioneering years of undergraduate education at Princeton, women would have moved steadily into more and more prominence in campus leadership … [Instead] there has been a pronounced drop-off in the representation of women in these prominent posts since around 2000.” Current female students seem relatively unconcerned about their status, with several suggesting to the authors of the report that they were happy to work behind the scenes of the campus hierarchy, or to throw their energies into other, more fulfilling pursuits. Yet there was also a poignancy in some female students’remarks, and a dismaying awareness of the extent to which their gender—and sexual attractiveness—shaped their behavior on campus. And thus the report is prompted to wonder: “Can a male student who sees a first-year woman as a potential sexual conquest on Thursday night regard her as his intellectual equal in precept on Friday morning? How do the experiences of Thursday night affect that first-year woman’s idea of herself and her sense of how she is evaluated by her peers?”</p>
<p>I give great kudos to Princeton president Shirley Tilghman, who commissioned the study, and to Nannerl Keohane (former president of Wellesley and Duke) who chaired its steering committee. I salute their courage in tackling the thorny and unpleasant question of why, four decades after coeducation, young women at some of the world’s best universities are still having educational experiences that are subtly different from those of their male colleagues and still facing options that are shaped and squeezed by their gender. Princeton, as the report concludes, “needs to address residual stereotypes” and “recognize and celebrate the many ways in which both women and men are providing leadership.” So should Yale and Duke and every other college in the country.</p>
<p>But in the meantime—and perhaps for a long time—the country and the world still vitally need places like Barnard and the Sisters. Places where, for four precious years of their lives, young women inhabit a world where girls truly rule; where women lead by definition and habit, and where female role models abound. For four years, women at a single-sex college can enjoy being smart without worrying whether that means they’re not sexy. They can speak their minds without wondering if they’re meant to represent the “woman’s point of view.” They can talk about fashion rather than football without having their intelligence questioned. And then, four years later, they can leave stronger, more confident, and bound to a sisterhood that will support them forever.</p>
<p>Thankfully, colleges like Barnard are no longer the necessity they once were. Bright girls can go to the Ivy League, to the military academies, and to whatever careers and futures they choose to pursue.<br />
But they can also choose an option that is increasingly rare and precious—four years of study and self-discovery, and a brief window of time when, for once, gender truly doesn’t matter.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-share field-type-addthis field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="President&amp;#039;s Page: Where Women Rule - Barnard College" addthis:url="http://www.barnard.edu/magazine/2011/fall/presidents-page"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_tumblr"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a>
</div></div></div></div>Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:41:19 +0000dstaab8805 at http://www.barnard.eduThe Next Forty Yearshttp://www.barnard.edu/headlines/next-forty-years
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-38" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">activism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-179" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">alumnae</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-30" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Barnard College</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-21" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">equality</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">LGBTQ</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-33" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">research</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-40" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">rights</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-6" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">scholarship</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-88" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexism</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-45" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">social justice</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-associatedperson field-type-user-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/profiles/janet-jakobsen">Janet Jakobsen</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><img alt="" class="image-inline_large" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/inline_large/public/images/inline/20110925.bcrwdirectors_0.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 1em 1em 0pt;" title="" />Janet Jakobsen, longtime director of Barnard’s Center for Research on Women, has heard all about the supposed demise of the women’s movement. Over the past decade or so, she has read countless media reports about the movement’s failure to connect with a younger generation of women—as well as endless pronouncements that feminism is basically dead. But, as Jakobsen made clear to the crowd of hundreds of feminist scholars, activists, and supporters that gathered at Barnard this fall, she’s not buying it.</p>
<p>“It’s quite clear that feminism is alive and well—and, perhaps most importantly, relevant today,” declared Jakobsen, as she kicked off a two-day conference, “Activism and the Academy: Celebrating 40 Years of Feminist Scholarship and Action,” marking the 40th anniversary of the BCRW’s founding.</p>
<p>On one hand, the event was a chance to honor BCRW’s groundbreaking contributions to the women’s movement. Not only was it the first research center at an American college or university focused on women’s issues, but since its founding in 1971, it has sought to serve as a bridge between feminist scholars and activists, and has maintained a staunch commitment to its original mission, as spelled out in the Center’s charter statement, of ensuring that “women can live and work in dignity, autonomy, and equality.”</p>
<p>In part, that has meant helping to focus attention on the obstacles to true gender equality. Indeed, the Center’s first public event, held in Barnard’s gym in January 1972, raised the question of sexism on the neighboring Columbia University campus with a forum on “Male Chauvinism at Columbia: Does it Exist?” In the decades since, the Center has sponsored countless other conferences and events covering everything from the politics of sexuality to women, work, and family. It has also produced a steady stream of papers and publications offering sophisticated analysis of the distinct challenges women in the United States and abroad continue to face and has helped stimulate discussions about the need for effective social and political reforms.</p>
<p>The September 23–24 conference, however, wasn’t just about celebrating the Center’s past. As Jakobsen noted in her opening remarks, the BCRW today is every bit as committed to strengthening the connections between feminist scholarship and activism. That effort, she added, is more urgent than ever in light of the mounting attacks on women’s reproductive rights, not to mention the global economic and environmental crises and the proliferation of wars—all of which, she said, have made it plain that new approaches for promoting economic and social justice are imperative and that “feminist ideas and feminist action could not be more important.”</p>
<p>Many of the speakers and panelists featured at the conference echoed that view. Indeed, in her keynote address, South African feminist author and activist Mamphela Ramphele confessed that she’s more alarmed than ever about the state of the world, especially as political discourse in the United States continues to devolve. “When I listen to the political debates, I am terrified,” said Ramphele. A former chancellor at the University of Cape Town, Ramphele has seen the dramatic reforms social movements can bring. Yet despite the fact that racial and gender equality are now enshrined in South Africa’s constitution, she noted that sexual assaults against South African women have reached epidemic proportions and that violence against both men and women has continued to spread. “We are a country at war with itself,” declared Ramphele, who told the audience that in her view there’s only one real solution. Social transformation—including embedding the values of gender equality and moving from a consumer-driven society to one focused on the needs of people—has to come from the ground up, and women have to step up and help lead the way. “We have an historic mission to be transformative agents,” she said adding that that’s no less true for women in the United States. “Women in the U.S. don’t want to risk the comforts by challenging the status quo, [but] if you don’t rock the boat, the boat is going to sink.”</p>
<p><img alt="" class="image-inline_large" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/inline_large/public/images/inline/20110924bcrw40thannspeakers.jpg" title="" /></p>
<p>Ramphele and other speakers and panelists at the conference praised BCRW for its long-standing commitment to developing and refining feminist scholarship on social problems, and to building a new generation of women leaders. Moreover, they lauded the Center’s ongoing partnerships with a broad range of organizations working to bring about positive social change. One example: the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), which has been leading a campaign to improve pay and working conditions for thousands of U.S. nannies and housekeepers and was one of four BCRW partner groups featured on a September 23 panel entitled “Expanding Feminism: Collaborations for Social Justice.”</p>
<p>As host to the first national domestic workers conference three years ago, the Center played a valuable role in helping the NDWA build what has become a thriving national movement, said Ai-Jen Poo, NDWA executive director. To wit: She noted that last year New York became the first state in the country to pass a law guaranteeing overtime pay and other benefits to domestic workers and that efforts to pass similar legislation have recently been gaining ground in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and other states.</p>
<p>“I’m really excited because we’re in this breakthrough moment,” said Poo.</p>
<p>Likewise, panelist Ana Oliveira, who heads the New York Women’s Foundation, said Barnard’s Center has been an important ally in its efforts to help build economic security for low-income women, as well as a generous partner to many of the organizations the foundation supports. “We want to thank Barnard for being such an activist thought leader in New York City,” said Oliveira, who added that collaboration between academic institutions and social activists has become even more critical in the face of the growing economic crisis. “The question is what can we do collectively to accelerate solutions,” said Oliveira. “We’ve got to quicken the midwifery of the new.”</p>
<p>Building on that theme, journalist Laura Flanders ’85 led a Saturday afternoon panel on how activists can best leverage research and other scholarly work produced at universities to advance the fight for social change. As one example, panelist Jamia Wilson of the Women’s Media Center noted that last year the American Psychological Association produced a new study on the harm caused by sexualization of girls in the media—and said the WMC had used that research to launch a new campaign, called SPARK (Sexualization Protest: Action Rebellion Knowledge), to challenge the ways girls are routinely objectified in movies, television programs, music videos, and advertising. “It gave us a platform to create the SPARK movement,” said Wilson.</p>
<p>Also on the program were sessions on feminist literature and on recent efforts by feminist librarians to better archive and document women’s history, as well as a discussion of campus activism around the country, highlighting the recent protests against tuition increases and budget cuts at the University of California and a successful union organizing drive for workers at Chicago’s Loyola University.</p>
<p>In addition, the program included panels that highlighted the growing power of feminist activism abroad, ranging from the fight for gender equality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the struggle by feminist academics and activists in Mexico to protect land rights for indigenous people.</p>
<p>In the year ahead, BCRW director Jakobsen said that one of the Center’s top priorities will be its new transnational project. As part of that, she noted that the Center has already launched a partnership with the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town, and has recently established a new faculty fellows program to help lead the effort to build new ties between BCRW and other feminist research centers around the world.</p>
<p>The Center is also considering a new program to help fund investigative reporting on a wide range of gender equality issues. Moreover, Jakobsen hopes to do more with new media to highlight the work that the Center and its partners are doing in the fight to end discrimination against women and bring positive social change.</p>
<p>In the four decades since the Center launched, there has definitely been real progress, said Jakobsen, who points to the Equal Pay Act of 2008 along with tougher rape and domestic violence laws as just a few examples. But, it’s clear that the fight for true gender equality still has a long way to go. “We’re talking about a very complex social system,” she said, noting that even at supposedly liberal publications like <em>The New Yorker</em> the vast majority of writers are white and male and that women are still underrepresented in government. “We’re still stuck at around 17 to 18 percent of elected officials,” sighed Jakobsen.</p>
<p>While much remains to be done, the good news, she added, is that the Center has plenty of eager young allies. Indeed, based on the enthusiasm and interest she saw at the 40th anniversary conference, she’s convinced that a whole new generation of women, who understand the stakes, have now taken up the struggle for women’s rights. Attendees included students from campuses across the country and Canada, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of California; that group contributed a good portion of the more than 1,300 tweets posted during the event.</p>
<p>“There’s a real energy behind this,” affirmed Jakobsen. “The vibrancy and youth of the [participants] surprised even me.”</p>
<p>- by Susan Hansen</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Watch a video about the BCRW and its initiatives on barnard.edu/magazine</em></p>
<p><br />
</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-share field-type-addthis field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="The Next Forty Years - Barnard College" addthis:url="http://www.barnard.edu/headlines/next-forty-years"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_tumblr"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a>
</div></div></div></div>Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:33:31 +0000dstaab8856 at http://www.barnard.eduAre French women more tolerant? Prof. Caroline Weber joins discussion on the Strauss-Kahn scandal.http://www.barnard.edu/headlines/are-french-women-more-tolerant-prof-caroline-weber-joins-discussion-strauss-kahn-scandal
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-87" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">men</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-17" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-105" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Europe</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-88" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-associatedperson field-type-user-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/profiles/caroline-weber">Caroline Weber</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><img alt="" src="http://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/images/inline/weber_c.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 1em 1em 0pt; width: 124px; height: 124px;" title="" />In <em>The New York Times</em>' "Room for Debate" forum, French literature professor Caroline Weber responds to the question, "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/05/18/are-french-women-more-tolerant/the-seducers-partisans?scp=11&amp;sq=barnard&amp;st=cse">Are French women more tolerant?</a>" about the Strauss-Kahn scandal and French society's attitudes toward sexual misconduct by powerful men.</p>
<p>"In his recent portrayal of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as “seductive, yes — a friend to women,” Bernard-Henri Lévy recycles a longstanding French political trope: women’s putative reverence for masculine sexual prowess," she writes.</p>
<p>Read full response <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/05/18/are-french-women-more-tolerant/the-seducers-partisans?scp=11&amp;sq=barnard&amp;st=cse">here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://barnard.edu/profiles/caroline-weber">Prof. Weber</a> is a specialist in eighteenth-century French literature and culture, with particular emphasis on the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Her book, <em>Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution</em>, was selected by both <em>The New York Times</em> and <em>The Washington Post</em> as a Notable Book of the Year.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-share field-type-addthis field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Are French women more tolerant? Prof. Caroline Weber joins discussion on the Strauss-Kahn scandal. - Barnard College" addthis:url="http://www.barnard.edu/headlines/are-french-women-more-tolerant-prof-caroline-weber-joins-discussion-strauss-kahn-scandal"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_tumblr"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a>
</div></div></div></div>Tue, 24 May 2011 17:40:29 +0000avine5324 at http://www.barnard.eduSlate.com calls Prof. Rebecca Jordan-Youngs's latest book a "devestatingly smart and definitive critique." http://www.barnard.edu/headlines/slatecom-calls-professor-rebecca-jordan-youngss-latest-book-devestatingly-smart-and
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-18" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">gender</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-33" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">research</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-60" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">neurology</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-88" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-associatedperson field-type-user-reference field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/profiles/rebecca-jordan-young">Rebecca Jordan-Young</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>An excerpt from Slate.com's <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2271666/">review of Rebecca Jordan-Young's new book</a> <em>Brain Storm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences</em>. a "masterful critique of the research on the relationship between testosterone and sex difference":</p>
<p>"An expert on measures and study designs, Jordan-Young has spent the last 13 years combing the literature on brain organization, unpacking assumptions, questioning methods and statistical practices, holding one paper up against another. She stresses that fetal hormones must matter to the brain—somehow. But after picking apart more than 400 studies that try to understand the genesis of particular psychological sex differences (real or supposed), she concludes that fetal T looks like an awfully anemic explanation." </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-share field-type-addthis field-label-hidden "><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Slate.com calls Prof. Rebecca Jordan-Youngs&amp;#039;s latest book a &amp;quot;devestatingly smart and definitive critique.&amp;quot; - Barnard College" addthis:url="http://www.barnard.edu/headlines/slatecom-calls-professor-rebecca-jordan-youngss-latest-book-devestatingly-smart-and"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_tumblr"></a>
<a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a>
</div></div></div></div>Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:00:00 +0000smin1596 at http://www.barnard.edu